I wonder, if this respected magazine is also oblivious that, the State of Palestine" which Pals want for themselves - also include, Jews Holiest site, and Israel's crown Jewel Hebrew University.

No Israeli in his right mind, (Jews in general and Israelis in particular) will accept the mandate for them to ask "permission" to enter these areas, from the same people (Arabs & Pals) who vilify Jews and teach anti-semitic (Jews are Apes & Pigs) material to their children.

Also, Unlike Jews, who built Jerusalem, and Christians who's (along with other) prophets have lived, preached and even died in that city - Muslim came as conquerers. The reasons for which Jerusalem is Muslims 3rd holy site - it is because Jews 2nd temple is located there. Muslims own Quran (Sura 5:21 & 5:27) attest to the fact Old Jerusalem belongs to Jews .

Today, this unified city of Jerusalem is at its glory. No need to re-divide it again. While there might be some merit against building in the west bank area - Israel has all the legal and moral right to re-build their ancient city of E Jerusalem. It was their capital city in ancient time - it is capital city today.

As for Palestinian capital city(ies) - they already have two - Ramallah& Gaza city.

Europeans own territories miles and miles away from their capital cities: for instances Brittons killed many Argentinians in the MALVINAS in 1982 I think. They built many edifices and obviously BANKS.
Europeans answer with strength when there G-d entitled sovereignty over there land is violated (remember, European land was claimed by dudes who spoke "in the name of divinities"- but when a jew says that it is their G-d-given land, it is IGNORANCE, NOT SCIENCE!).

On the other hand, if ANY OTHER HUMAN BEING OR ORGANISM who bought or owned territories and was building living or commercial space in East Jerusalem it would be called development. But because it is jews with their settlements it is warmongering.

French general Napoleon Bonaparte was the first "Zionist" who tried to reinstate Jews in Jerusalem, writes prof Mordechai Gichon, a military historian. His book sums up almost 40 years of research on the subject with most of the material collected from France's war archive, as well as journals and books written by soldiers in Napoleon's army. In the summer of 1798, he conquered Egypt and in the same year, he led 30,000 soldiers through the Sinai Peninsula . On March 7, 1799, Napoleon took control of Jaffa, and then headed north to besiege Acre.
Napoleon intends "to restore to the Jews their Jerusalem", read a French report "Bonaparte published a proclamation that calls on all the Jews of Africa and Asia to rally around his flag in order to re-establish ancient Jerusalem".His defeat at the hands of the British, impeded this outcome.

Sir,
You may keep blaming Israel for this or that, but at the end of the day the only possible solution for the Palestinians is to sit down with the Israelis and compromise. If they keep avoiding the need to compromise and keep trying to find a sugar daddy who will impose their solution on the Israelis, they will keep getting what they have been getting, including what they got last week. As to the "one state solution" - that is a pipe dream as well. The Palestinians are just as likely to march into Israel as the Mexicans to claim California, or the Spanish getting back Gibraltar.

"The Palestinians are just as likely to march into Israel as the Mexicans to claim California, or the Spanish getting back Gibraltar.".........Or worse, transfer it back to the 7tht century towns and cities.

The magazine is blaming Israel for stomping on the precursors for peace talks. Israel is continuously stealing Palestinians land. While it does this, it is destroying the territory of the future Palestinian state (which it says it supports), while telling the Palestinians to come to the table. Israel is actively undermining peace in favor of snatching more land. It is more than just punishment.

The "one state solution" refers to Israel deciding against allowing Palestinians statehood and just swallowing them. Perhaps the magazine is being too charitable, maybe Israel will ultimately take the entire West Bank and throw the Palestinians into the Jordan River.

Miss Irrelevant Sarcasm:
You should know by now that Israel is a cosmopolitan country that welcomes jews, catholics, arabs and whatever form of belief system in its cities.
Maybe you can give me ONE...just ONE example of an arab country that doesn't let jews -and other non arabs for that matter-buy land or real estate within its territory? Or maybe you can give ONE example of an arab country that has expelled jews recently or historically?
If the settlements belong to Israel, Israeli law applies, which is democratic and wellcomming of diversity.
If you want a name, I don't have it. If you want an address or a P.O Box, I won't give it. But as of now, Israel is receptive of whatever international. Even one comming from ONE -EVERYONE- of those countries that expelled its nationals, killed them or spoke out against them.

Miss Irrelevant Sarcasm:
You should know by now that Israel is a cosmopolitan country that welcomes jews, catholics, arabs and whatever form of belief system in its cities.
Maybe you can give me ONE...just ONE example of an arab country that doesn't let jews -and other non arabs for that matter-buy land or real estate within its territory? Or maybe you can give ONE example of an arab country that has expelled jews recently or historically?
If the settlements belong to Israel, Israeli law applies, which is democratic and wellcomming of diversity.
If you want a name, I don't have it. If you want an address or a P.O Box, I won't give it. But as of now, Israel is receptive of whatever international. Even one comming from ONE -EVERYONE- of those countries that expelled its nationals, killed them or spoke out against them.

Settlements are generally populated with hardcore fundamentalist Jews and are far more weary of Palestinians. Do you honestly think that Jews would welcome them? Don't kid yourself. Wanna bet that "all the apartments are full" would be a pre-loaded answer?

What does the right-wing coalition government in Israel plan to do with the Palestinians if not give them a state? I would like to hear a plan that's practicable, fits within 21st century morality, and wouldn't lead to endless war. By practicable, I mean that Israel isn't going to accept the Palestinians as full voting citizens in a secular state, especially if they become the majority. In a perfect world, this is probably the ideal solutation, but if the UK, Spain and Cyprus are struggling with bicommunal countries, it's not going to work in Israel/Palestine. By moral, I mean that mass deportation isn't really an option. Finally, by peaceful, I mean that the status quo or some kind of apartheid regime isn't going to work because it'll just lead to more violence. It's time for the right in Israel to be practical and place the interest of Israel above elections and ideals.

The collusion between british and zionists colonizers at the beginning of the XXth century (ironically just before european colonization was forced to pull back) has led to a ridiculous situation, which most of the candid and ill-informed masses forget, buried they are under the details avalanche skillfully organized (typically “it’s not me who begun !” or the wonderful israelian aggressive "war in (preemptive) defense"). Zionists communication strategists are delighted to bury the fundamental facts under details (news…)

The ridiculous situation – the INVERTED lands paradox - is easy to describe by facts :

At the beginning of XXth century, his colonization collusion between brits and zionists settled zionists on the COAST of Palestine (Peleset in ancient Egyptian) (c) – so as to contribute to the british colonization drive in the southern Middle East (Jordan, Iraq, Arabia), by occupying the mediterranean ports (Haifa etc), and to settle an ally on the east side of the Suez canal – crucial for the brit link to their asian colonies.

Currently zionists are on the Palestine COAST, benefiting of the richest and easiest agricultural lands, and the ports, plus - since the end of XXth century - beach tourism for jews who like to make a sun bathing pilgrimage.

But zionists claim with their stuborn ideology the high hills in the Palestine INTERIOR in Cisjordany, around Samaria and Jerusalem. And they will stubornly continue to this goal, whatever hypocrisy needed, tactical wait, and manipulation of the rest of the world.

Zionists justify their XXth century colonization in Palestine, by religious text which has created the myth of “Israel land”, believed to have existed in 1000 BC (a). Note that many parts of the hebraic Bible are mostly mythical (the egyption exile return, Canaan habitants extermination (but still an alive myth !...), unified Israel and Judah kingdoms, etc), as archeology has demonstrated, or indicated (b).

This mythical “Land of Israel” is ill-defined in principle … thus with subjective, and moving (!), frontiers – how convenient ! It is centered on the two small jewish kingdoms Israel and Judah, created around 1000 BC, and separated (around the small towns of Samaria and Jerusalem) - which were in the INTERIOR on the high hills distant 20 or 40 Km from the coast … (some zionists stick to the claim that Jordan river is not a frontier but at the center of their “Land of Israel”)

The solution to exit this knots bag (voluntarily soaked with jewish religious ideology and jewish religious fanatism) is maybe to INVERT the populations !

And to settle the descendants of the 600'000 palestinians expelled by force and threat in 1948 back on the Palestine COAST – including in Haifa and in Tel Aviv – and to expel israelians on the distant high hills of the Palestine INTERIOR ! …

(a) please read israelian historian Shlomo Sand “The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland “ 2012
(b) see israelian archeologist Israel Finkelstein “The Bible unearthed” 2002 for a review of 1980s and 1990s archeological discoveries
(c) Palestine = Peleset in ancient Egyptian, who dominated the region from 1400 BC onwards = Canaan region = the southern levantine mediterranean coast, up to Jordan circa 100 Km to the east

Your proposed 'solution' (invert the two populations) in the most unfounded as well as unrealistic idea I've ever heard, but at least it's amusing -
Ask any Palestinian or Arab if they'd be willing to give up their claim on Jerusalem (Al Quds - the holy city) in exchange of getting Tel Aviv, and they'll get very angry at you.
Ask them if they think they're the descendants of the biblical Philistines (Pleshet), or 'people of the sea' (Goyey ha-yam) and they're likely to get mad at you :)

@Pez :
1) You can always keep Jerusalem a split city, as it is. When muslim Saladin took Jerusalem in 1187 CE he left jews free to live on the dominated land, and both muslims and jews lived in Jerusalem. Only israelians are keen to apply apartheid, as segragation is part of series of zionist myths.(a)

2) where did I mention antiquity Philistines or 'people of the sea' invading in 1200 BC (some light eyes colors north of Gaza indian reserve - under blocus) ??

Canaan/Palestine has been a corridor (actually the plains a core commercial route of the ancient world) since at least 1200 BC (with domination from superpowers, in sequence :Egyptians, assyrians, babylonians, perses, arabs, brits)

Only zionist racists can dream in this region of an apartheid, clutching to the SEGREGATION myth of the hebraic bible and pure blood (and many religious zionist bathed in the extermination myth of Canaan inhabitants - the first human myth of an extermination, and glorified in the Deuteronome (b) )

3) the proposed 'solution' (invert the two israeli coast and palestinian inland populations)is a less UNREALISTIC idea than the "separate 2 states" 'solution' displayed wish by some (hypocritical display, manipulatinng rest of the world opinions and candid leaders, to gain time for zionist territory erosion ): the systematic zionsit colony settlements in such an intricate manner on Cisjordany territory will make it unmanageable (on purpose !) ... actually E1 latest extension is meant to complete the zionist circle around East Jerusalem !...

4) the proposed 'solution' (invert the two coast and inland populations) is far less UNFOUNDED than the zionist right of property fetching back 30 centuries ago ! It is far less unfounded than the series of ridiculous zionist myths and falsification of history(a,b)(one recent widespread zionist myth being that palestinians willfully left the land empty in 1948, following some arab leaders directives - this is really preposterous)

5) the above "proposed solution" is far less UNFOUNDED than christian zionists wish to populate the "Land of Israel" with jews to accelerate the redemption of souls, the Apocalypse, the coming back of Jesus and resurection of teh deads ... no less !! christian zionists were influent in the UK in XIXth c. (one french activist proposed then to park autochtones in indian reserves controled by zionists ... like Gaza strip actually blocked from the outside)Nowadays christian zionists evangelists are an influential lobby in the pseudotheocratic USAs for Israel. (GW Bush clan wooed their votes)

6) note your distortion of the "proposed solution" : I was focusing on cities but on LANDS around them : the agricultural rich land in the plains and the north, and the ports (and the beaches ... you are no more in 1000 BC)

7) typically I would rather ask the people themselves than to make a third party or an israeli spek for them ...

Conclusion : the above "proposed solution" may not be realistic, but is BY FAR less unfounded and unrealistic than the series of zionist myths and fanatic claims that we are forced to hear.

(a) for zionists myths and falsifications series please read Miko Peled "The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine" 2012 (author is son of a high ranking israeli general who could scrutinize some 1967 archives : the decision of 1967 war was not due to the fear of an arab attack, as israeli citizens were told, but due to a window of opportunity due to arab neighbours military weakness that zionist seized).
(b) read Shlomo Sand "Land of Israel" for a long series of myth feeding jewish fanatism.
(c) please read egyptologist Jan Assmann "Violence et Monotheisme" (Violence and Monotheism - curiously not translated in english)"Monotheismus und die Sprache der Gewalt" (2006)

"Peace process"?
What peace process are we talking about?
There is no such process going on between Israel and the Palestinians inreality, because the Israelis feel they have a better hand than the Palestinians, which happens to be true, while the Palestinians realize they have a weaker hand, but they won't play it because they're in denial, as they've been since 1947, when they totally rejected the UN decision dividing the country between a Jewish and an Arab state.
Moreover, any Palestinian leader who signed a (theoretical) peace treaty with Israel leaving Jerusalem (Al Quds in Arabic) under Israeli dominion, would be instantly banned in the Arab world, vilified by extreme Islamic mullah, and assassinated by Islamic terrorists.
Israel has diplomatic and commercial relationships with most countries of the world, including Muslim and Arab ones, as well as former USSR and Warsaw pact countries, etc.
In fact, Israel is less isolated today than in any other time since it was founded in 1948.
Netanyahu isn't trying to be nice, fair, or just, and he's not even trying to look like he is. He's just playing hardball in a tough, violent, and most unpleasant neighborhood that doesn't like minorities - any kind of minority.
Meanwhile, Palestinians who are Israeli citizens (about 20% of Israelis belong to this group) are the only Arabs enjoying democracy, freedom, and fairness in that tortured region.
In contrast, Jews are banned from visiting Saudi Arabia, let alone live there, and that's a country labeled by some as 'moderate'...

It is true that Palestinians in Israel proper enjoy equal rights on paper, but the reality is very different. It is the Jim Crow regime of the first half of the 20th century transplanted. They are discriminated against in everything from housing to education to employment. And the Israeli government, including the courts, do nothing to stop it. Yes, they are still better off than those suffering under apartheid in the occupied West Bank and those imprisoned and bombed and shelled in Gaza, but must Israeli policy supporters always make comparisons to the worst of conditions elsewhere? Yes there is the occasional token Palestinian success in Israel, just as there were token black successes in the US under Jim Crow, but the reality is blatant discrimination.

Being uninformed does not give anyone a right to mislead others -
The non-Jewish population in Israel (i.e. Arab citizens) are a very diverse group, comprised of Christians (various sects), Muslims, and Druze. Some of them won't even consisder themselves as Palestinians (e.g. the Bedouins & Druze).
Most of them benefit from being exempt of getting drafted into the Israeli Military for a 3 year service, while young Jews have to serve. This is not a small thing, and it gives young Israeli Arabs a considerable head start over young Israeli Jews. BTW, some groups (Druze, Bedouin) do serve in the Israeli military, and they're proud of it.
Israeli Arabs are well integrated in Israeli society, and they succeed in academy, science, commerce, medicine, and even high-tech.
Israeli Arabs are free to travel anywhere they want, and leave Israel to any Arab or non-Arab state they want, but they prefer to stay, because they feel good, essentially.

Bottom line - The Jim Crow analogy is completely inappropriate and provocative.

Any discussion of Israel-Palestinian relations tends to generate heated emotions. I'm a neutral person, a US-based Hindu from India who has been an admirer of Israeli achievements, been sympathetic to the plight of Palestinian civilians and been critical of Hamas and hard-line Israeli Politicians (in plain words, I am as neutral an observer as they come), I have this to say:

1. The Israeli Peace-lobby (Pro-peace Israeli Left and Liberals)have been in coma for a long time.

2. Israeli politicians (with support or indifference of Israeli masses) are increasingly behaving like Neo-Nazis!

The prognosis does not look good. And America's non-contributions to the peace process and blind support to Israel is shameful. Blind friendship is no friendship.

There is a good reason why the issue generates "heated emotions". If your own infant child got attacked with white phosphorous shells, for example, you wouldn't remain so very "neutral" for very long, I suspect.

When I use the term "neutral" I mean to suggest I do not demonize any side nor do I condone the "wrongs" of either side. When two parties are in a dispute they view in purely black and white terms and they paint themselves as the victim and the other side as demons, problems don't get solved. Right now, both Palestinians and Israelis view themselves as the innocent victims and the other party as the villains. If this mindset does not change on both sides, this fire would still be raging 100 years from now, long after the bones of anyone alive today have turned to dust...

My emotional focus (though I have no power other than to write occasional letters to White House asking them to take Israel to task and get involved in making Two State solution a reality) is trying to visualize a viable and peaceful Palestinian state that is the master of its own destiny. And for Israel to get out of the way.

As far as I'm concerned all religions and religious identities can go to hell. Humanism is my only religion.

So, please do not direct your negative emotions at this stranger who is a friend of the Palestinian civilians and wants Israel to do the right thing.

When I use the term "neutral" I mean to suggest I do not demonize any side nor do I condone the "wrongs" of either side. When two parties are in a dispute they view in purely black and white terms and they paint themselves as the victim and the other side as demons, problems don't get solved. Right now, both Palestinians and Israelis view themselves as the innocent victims and the other party as the villains. If this mindset does not change on both sides, this fire would still be raging 100 years from now, long after the bones of anyone alive today have turned to dust...

My emotional focus (though I have no power other than to write occasional letters to White House asking them to take Israel to task and get involved in making Two State solution a reality) is trying to visualize a viable and peaceful Palestinian state that is the master of its own destiny. And for Israel to get out of the way.

As far as I'm concerned all religions and religious identities can go to hell. Humanism is my only religion.

So, please do not direct your negative emotions at this stranger who is a friend of the Palestinian civilians and wants Israel to do the right thing.

The only reason why "this fire would still be raging 100 years from now" is that supposedly moral beings like you have a problem describing an evil regime by its name. I don't care what the history of the dispute is supposed to be - we all have our version of it. But if the UN is supposed to be the final moral and legal arbiter in these matters, and it has proposed a two-state solution (which Israel itself has accepted publicly but repeatedly does everything to frustrate), what excuse has anyone got for remaining "neutral" (whatever piece of sophistry you choose to adopt in defining the word)?

Dude, I've called Israeli leadership "Neo-Nazis" for their current attitude and stance vis-a-vis Palestine.

What else do you want me to do? UN has been like an aging prostitute that has been held hostage to the Veto wielding powers.

If I had my way and I were US President, I'd grab Netanyahu by his balls and would not let go until Palestine is a viable state. In fact, Palestine would be reality. Bill Clinton's last months as President were the closest it came to happening and I was desperately hoping it would but Yasser Arafat was not satisfied with 97% (or whatever percent it was).

That said, Hamas has always added fuel to the raging fire. They're not exactly Gandhian peaceniks. They are also to blame for the currently hardened Israeli attitudes.

And the so called Middle-eastern friends of Palestinian people, the dictatorial regimes (Egypt, Saudis, Iran...every single one of them) have always used the Palestinian issue to deflect and re-direct their own failings. They have done exactly zilch for Palestine.

For peace to prevail BOTH Palestinians and Israeli masses need to AGREE and come together. Go direct the raging fire of your heart to something more useful.

If you were Arafat, would you seriously have accepted the "Bantustanization" that was offered by Clinton? Clearly, you've been reading the New York Times and watching CNN a little too often. And how exactly is Hamas a problem (however much you and I might disagree with their ideology)? How would you respond if you grew up under one of the most brutal occupations the world has ever known? Like Gandhi, when even Western-based peace activists have been literally crushed by Israeli bulldozers and murdered by its soldiers for daring to protest? Why does the world expect the Palestinians to behave differently from the way every other people would behave under a vicious, merciless occupation?

I agree, though, with your point about other Arab states. I've always argued that if even Saudi Arabia alone were minded to do so, it could end this injustice overnight, literally, e.g., by even threatening to withdraw (never mind actually doing so) the reported 6 trillion dollars of its stolen assets from New York unless the Palestinians were given a state.

You are not even remotely neutral. Claiming the Israeli government are "neo-nazis" is quite incendiary, provocative and either ill-informed, or indoctrinated or you have an agenda. Either way, using the population transfer by India (your home country) and Pakistan as a perfect example, wherein over 12 million people were exchanged between both (and one million killed I might add), I believe the solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is exactly that. All Arabs in Judea and Samaria be transferred to Jordan. Jordan was unilaterally created by the British out of 70% of the Palestine Mandate Territory (even though they promised it to the Jews), but given to a pliable outside Arab dynasty to rule over the local Palestinians. The French, likewise, unilaterally created the artificial countries of Lebanon and Syria (both in civil war). Jordan even enshrines in its constituion that under penalty of death no Jew may live in Jordan (talk about apartheid). This is the perfect atmosphere for Palestinians to live in. Israel absorbed over 800,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim countries in the 1948-1953 time frame after those people, who presence in places like Iraq, pre-dated Muslim and Arab conquests by over 1,000 years. Those same Jews are the majority ethnicity in modern Israel. Likewise, the Palestinian Arab refugees (most left on their own volition by adhering to invading Arab armies demands) numbered 600,000. The Arabs put their own compatriots in refugee camps like animals, whereas Israel absorbed, at great cost and sacrifice, its refugees. The Palis rejected the two-state solution in 1948, in 1967, in 2000 and anytime an offer was on the table. It is the height of chutzpah to claim Israel was not interested in that solution. But now that the Palis have reneged on the Oslo Accords, all bets are off the table. Jordan is Palestine. That is where all the Palestinian refugees, who through majority vote in the that petro-dollar greased den of dictators, iniquity and corruption called the UN, are the only people in human history to be granted refugee status generationally (hence the continuation of the conflict) and which refugee camps are subsidized by Western powers (hence the continuation of the conflict), can then create their own Arab spring in Jordan.

Murky, by your logic even your own country is pretty much an artificial creation.

The very fact that my post is getting strong reactions from the "attack dogs" from both the sides is amusing and proof enough for me that I've hit the nail on the head. It fits the pattern: every single time any reasonable columnist in the New York Times writes an Op-Ed piece that is even mildly critical of Israeli policies, the "attack dogs" from the Israeli lobby in the US come out in force to bombard the editor with letters some of which do get published and drown out any sound that is even remotely critical of Israeli policies.

The Middle-East of today with all the conflicting parties painting themselves as "victims" and the other side as "vanilla villains" pretty much resembles a retarded Darwinian Jungle where might is right and nobody can separates causes and effects from the viscious circle of "cause and effect". It is an endless symmetrical escalation. Go ahead, do each other and yourself to death. I don't want American Tax dollars to subsidize Israel. You guys are big boys now and don't need any weapons, subsidies or financing from America. I want American tax dollars to build schools in America.

So the Palestinians are moving in closer to higher populated areas within Israel. A distance that allows rockets to be fired at civilian buildings, where innocent women and children are in danger. Way to go world, WWIII soon on video. Its amazing to read some of these comments... Do people not understand that the main motive here for muslim terrorist organization is to wipe Israel off the map? And that's ok with people? We are all humans, Jews are not bad, Muslims are not bad. Neither are Christians, or Buddhists, but radicals are. Arabs do serve in the Israeli army, and are Israeli citizens. They can even vote, wow.. what a concept. How's voting going in all the other surrounding countries? Wake up people!!!

So, "even the Americans [have] objected" to Israel's illegal settlements? Really? Who, then, are the ones financing them? And who, if not the craven, spineless European Union, has just granted Israel an enhanced preferential trading status (in addition to an existing one), which allows it to export even produce grown in stolen Palestinian land? Why, indeed, is The Economist not highlighting this nauseating hypocrisy, but reminding us instead of a supposedly "lost sympathy for Israel’s cause" by the world community? Or of the "need" for Hamas to recognize Israel's right to existence (as if Hamas, whatever it might think, has any means of threatening Israel with its 300-odd nuclear warheads). Or as if Israel itself would wish ever to be recognized by what it considers a "terrorist organization" (because, you see, it is Hamas that routinely murders innocent civilians, infant babies included, in an open prison called Gaza). I don't blame the Israelis for their atrocities; I blame those in the Western media who habitually conceal their heinous crimes, and the roles of those Western governments who facilitate them.

Yes, you're absolutely right. Assad, who is fighting a US-sponsored, well-armed, al-Qaeda-led insurgency in his country, where atrocities are committed daily by both sides, is responsible for Israel's unspeakable atrocities against Gaza's children, and for illegal settlements on Palestinian land.

It's interesting, amidst all this, that it is Palestine that risks a US aid cut (for daring to ask for pseudo-recognition as a nation), rather than Israel (for illegally building settlements that foreclose chance of a peaceful settlement). I wish Israel were a lot lonelier for US company than it is.

The economist fail to describe that Israel has no one it can actually negotiate. The economist try's to emphasis that the Fatah Mahmoud Abbas is a "moderate" option compared to Hamas.
Let me describe the situation threw a simple example.
Would you let your daughter go out with the Boston Strangler because he is more "moderate" than Jack the Ripper? I Don't think so

In the Charter and latest claims from both Palestinian Major parties, Israel has no right to exist. while one tries by military forces the other by diplomatic tools but both have the same goals.

The buildings aren't blocking the road for peace, here is the map from the Geneva agreements about the recent area, the purple road is now 2 kilometer bigger, that's it. please find a different excuse to bash Israel, now you're just ridding the ignorance of the readers.
geneva-accord.org/mainmenu/geneva-initiative-ma-aleh-adumim

What are we policing in this article? No troops, no police, no covert action, no resources aside from those Israel gets for security guarantees. Or do you extend this 'no policing' bumpersticker to mean the US isn't allowed to communicate with other countries? Are we not allowed to have a Department of State either? You cannot be be serious.

The Economist must stop with its mischaracterisation of Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas as "moderate." The well-informed reader knows that "moderate" Abbas heaped praise on terrorist Hamas' latest war against Israel, and that this same "moderate" Abbas shows all of Israel as Palestine on his official stationery.

This is the same "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas who does not permit any school or organization in the Palestinian Authority to include the State of Israel on any of their maps!

This is the same "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas who in the summer of 2009 at the Sixth Fatah General Conference in Bethlehem uttered these incendiary words, "We maintain the right to launch an armed resistance . . ."

Creating a 23rd Arab State out of a lone Israel is an injustice. Carving a 57th Muslim country at the expense of the sole Jewish nation in the world is a crime!

With the billions of dollars from the US. Plus, in collusion with british colonisation, sionists got settled on the coast, with the ports and the richer plains along the coast

(settling sionists on the coast and ports served british interests to settle an ally on the levantine coast for the pursuit pf their colonization of the southern Middle East, and to settle an ally on the east side of the crucial Suez canal. Plus some fancy "christian sionists", including Lord Balfour, who believed settling jews in Palestine would accelerate souls redemption and the coming of the apocalyse and the return of Jesus ... no less. Nowadays these lunatics sect are an active lobbly in the US)

These hills look barren only for colonisers from Europe, with no understanding of local ecology. So you propose to "develop" those "barren" hills with water stolen from Jordan river, while Dead Sea levels drop precipitously, water stolen from water aquifers in Palestine, where illegal Israeli land seizures and settlement buildings align precisely with water holding resources of Palestinians?

Israel makes the desert bloom with stolen water, wrecking the local environment.

What I'm really surprised is that the Europeans are threatening of actually DOING something about Israel's roguish behavior, instead of the usual empty declarations. Too bad that they have so far ruled out any kind of economic sanctions. Considering that the EU is Israel's first trading partner, just threatening with downgrading existing preferential agreements would probably get the Israeli regime to listen. But I guess for that the cowardly Europeans would have to agree on something for a change (and grow a spine). I won't hold my breath.

Netanyahu needs some tough love. The US needs to manhandle him, whatever that may result in. GHW Bush did by threatening to cut off US AID. Israel IMO appears to now mirror the GOP in the USA. Religious loons and hawks run the show.

Iran and Hamas are equally at fault and do not want a 2 state solution as this contributes to Israel's further isolation. And they can be thanked for Israel's far right shift as all peace efforts and land returns....Sinai, Gaza in the past have resulted in only more violence.

RumbaClave: I was with you until you mentioned Iran and Hamas. These are well known distractions. To begin with, it is not Iran or Hamas that is expanding illegal settlements as I write, or maintaining a brutal occupation of Gaza. Neither party has a say in Israel's arrogant contempt for the United Nations and international law. It is Israel's own decision (and it's not just Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals who are to blame here, but those who elect them too, by the way) to place itself above universally-agreed legal and moral restraints. Not Iran's or Hamas'.

You are wrong on this. IRAN does not want a 2 state solution. The longer Israel waits to implement a 2 state solution the further its status goes down as a legitimate country. Thats why IRAN ships missiles to Hamas and Hezbollah to bomb Israel and that is why Israel becomes more convinced that no matter what it does peace is not achieved by pulling out of Gaza or the Sinai.

You're certainly entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts. Hamas and Hezbollah did not exist in 1948 when Count Bernadotte and his aides were murdered by Yitzak Shamir, a man who later became an elected prime minister of Israel. And what was Count Bernadotte's crime? You guessed it, he was in the region to negotiate a two-state solution as UN envoy. Not even the fact that he had personally saved tens of thousands of Jews from Hitler could save him. So, spare me this Israeli foreign ministry drivel about "Hamas" and "Hezbollah" (who both came into existence in direct response to Israel's atrocities, by the way) being the obstacles to that solution.

As for Iran, you obviously don't know (or have chosen not to know) that it has its own thriving Jewish population, many of whom actually oppose Israel's abhorrent policies (as do many Jews worldwide), and to whose charities Ahmadinejad has donated his personal money. And I wish that Iran has actually shipped weapons to these groups as you claim. Indeed, I wish the kleptocratic tyrannies of the region had done the same too. For, only when the Palestinian people are able to defend themselves will Israel's atrocities stop.

To be honest, Israel has been alone since it walked away from the moral high table in the middle of the last century.

I guess the word one might use for the behavior of Bibi and the idiots surrounding him is “chutzpah” but to the rest of the real world it can be considered total denial of reality.

One cannot help but feel pity for a country (that like a brother or member of the family who are mad) that has adopted a suicidal policy that will inevitably result in more and more of the worlds civilized people lumping it in with nations like Iran.

Will “never again” become “yet again”?

For me, I am pissed off at the insult Israel regularly delivers to the US.

Hopefully Obama will slap Bibi and tell him to start behaving in a civilized rather than petulant way.

How is it Israel's fault that Americans (not least through their elected representatives in Congress) allow themselves to be so "insulted"? If you were the war criminals that have ruled Israel, how would you behave if you were actively encouraged, indulged, and rewarded each time you commit unspeakable atrocities against a longsuffering people?

Israel is digging its own grave. The only way to ensure that a state from the sea to the Jordan has a Jewish majority is a genocide, which Israel will not be able to pull off. We should in fact already be thinking about what to do with the ex-Israelis: as the US bears a huge responsibility in what is happening, I think it should offer (future) ex-Israelis citizenship.

You are assuming that those whose deeds are guided by Zionist beliefs would have the kind of moral difficulties you suggest here. Or that either the Americans or the Europeans would withdraw their support if they committed genocide in the technical, legal sense. Who, for example, has even uttered a word of mild criticism against Israel for wiping Palestine off the map (to borrow a phrase) through forced expulsions and illegal settlements? In my view, only time stands between the atrocious status quo and the scenario you can't foresee.

What makes you think that Israel will not pull off ethnic cleansing (yet again), or wholesale genocidal slaughter?
These are the options discussed openly by the supporters of parties about to be voted to power in Israel on 22nd of January.

So the Germans ethnically cleansed by the Soviets in Konigsberg - to create Kallingrad - have a claim to return? Or is it only small countries that are bullied about their infractions? How long does Israel have to to keep the settlements before you accept them as legitimate? Should American withdraw its citizens from California? Or should the Arab invaders remove their colonists from the Israel they conquered in the 7th and 8th century?

There was a two state solution offered to the Arabs twice: once in 1948 and once in 2000. In both cases the Arabs responded with war. From an Israeli perspective it makes sense to assume the Arabs still want to kill all the Jews and throw them in the sea so what's the point of trying to have a peace agreement with them?

Perhaps before criticising Israel you should take a look at the human rights records of Arabs, ie how they treat women, gays and minorities (hello Syria??).

I'm hoping the UN will accept me as an observer state soon. Then I will propose a country for all terrorists and skilled molotov bomb makers and propaganda experts: there, ETA, IRA, FARC, Al Qaeda and all other guerrillas and terrorists can live happily ever after.

As if WW2 for the jewish people was for gaining a moral high ground. Amazing. You should get a job at the economist.